Feed-gage for use on printing-presses



. .E.'L. MEGILL. YFEED GAGE FOR US Ev 0N PRINTING PRESSES.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 24, 1919.

Patented Mar. 8, 1921.

PATENT OFFICE.

EDWARD L. MEGILL, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

FEED-GAGE FOR USE ON PRINTING-PRESSES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 8,1921.

Application filed June 24, 1919. Serial No. 306,336.

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWARD L. MEGILL, a citizen of the United States,residing at New York, in the county of New York and tate of Yew York,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Feed- Gages for Useon Printing-Presses, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in what are commonly called feedgages for use on printing presses, and which are secured to the tympansheets on the platen of the press to serve as stops or rests, locatingthe position of the sheets to be printed, so that they may be properlypresented to the type. i have in mind particularly the sort of in whighthere is one part that is inserted through a hole or slit in the tympansheet, and lies below this sheet, and another part connected to thefirst part, which over-lies the tympan sheet, the sheet being grippedbetween these two parts.

A gage of this general type may include a vertical gage head, whichnormally stands perpendicular and when fast to the tympan is at rightangles with the surface thereof; also a prong member which passes underthe tympan, saio prong member being integral with and extendingrearwardly from the lower edge of the gage head, integral presser armsextending rearwardly from the upper edge of the gage head and restingupon the upper surface of the tympan and cooperating therewith tosupport the gage head, In devices of this character there has also beenemployed a sliding tongue projecting through an aperture in the vericalgage head, the lower end of this sliding tongue being widened and bentaround the outer edges of the presser arms. Usually also the lower edgeof the gage head, and each side of the prong which projects therefrom,is provided with downwardly projecting teeth, which are to be forcedinto the tympan sheet to hold the gage in desired position.

It is one of the objects of the present invention to construct a gagepin in such' a way that the gage head will have an unbroken lower edge,except for such holding teeth as may be formed thereon; that is to say,I aim to provide a construction in which the holding prong does notspring from the lower edge of the gage head proper, so that the wholelower edge may be provided with teeth as desired. Furthermore, I aim toprovide a construction in which the root end of the holding prong is notin the line of the teeth but is integral with the lower edge of an archmember parallel to the gage head proper and constituting, with the gagehead proper said arch, so that there is a space between the teeth andthe inner end of the holding prong and consequently less liabilof theteeth being gouged into the tympan paper when the prong is inserted intothe tympan to the full extent. The possible additional teeth on thelower edge of the gage head, in connection with the customary teeth atthe corners of the gage head adds considerable strength to the bite onthe tympan. The teeth are sure to gouge into the tympan if they areclose to the end of the. prong and if the prong is pushed all the wayinto the tympan. Therefore, I form an arch between the prong and theteeth and prevent the teeth from puncturing or dragging through thetympan when the prong is pushed in full length. In other words, the gagehead instead of being a vertical member with arms extending backwardfrom its upper edge and a prong extending backward from its lower edgeis made in the form of a U, one member of which is the gage head properwith teeth on its lower edge, and the other member of which is parallelto the gage head proper and has the prong and the presser arms extendingrearwardly from its lower edge portion, these two parallel parts of theU member being spaced apart by a cross-piece or co-acting member. And Iprovide that in the space between the two parts of the U member thereshall be mounted a substitute for the sliding tongue in such fashionthat it may be readily depressed when it is brought in contact with thefurniture in the chase and will spring back when this contact ceaseswithout possibility of disarrangement. This substitutefor the usualspring tongue may however be readily detached for purposes ofreplacement or repair and the necessity for punching a hole through thegage head proper is eliminated.

Furthermore, by reason of the new relation between the holding prong andthe gage head and the resulting possibility of having teeth in themiddle of the lower edge of the gage head as well as toward the endsthereof, I am enabled not only to obtain a stronger bite on the uppersheets of the tympan, and to reduce the depth of the penetration whichwould be required where fewer teeth were used, which would necessarilyhave to be longer and which cause destruction of the under sheets orcard packing of the tympan; but also due to this relation of the teethand prong, the teeth maybe released from the tympan and the gage pinmoved for betterment of the register without fracturing the tympanpaperaround the tooth holes.

'inother advantage resulting from the new relation which I have devisedbetween the prong and the gage head proper, is that I am able'to producefrom a blank of a given length, a variety f heights of gage head as isrequired in the printing ofdifferent stock. This is done by having theportion of the blank of which the gage head is formed made of a givenwidth, perfectly flat and free from side extensions, or notches orinsets, with parallel side edges; and by simply bendingfthe blankcrosswise at the desired places, a variety of heights for the gage headmaybe readily. and cheaply made.

'The angles of bend are made on lines to produce thedesired-height ofthe front and rear plates, which are the parts of the U member hereinreferred to, and which oetermine the height of the gage on the tympan. Afurther object is to confine all rigid high parts of the device within anarrow compass, so that when the sheet gripper of the press is connectedto grip the end of 1 the sheet, the gage head may pass through a narrowopening provided in the sheet grip per, to permit the gripper to comedown on the margin of the stock which is being print ed, the substitutefor the sliding tongue as before stated, being readily depressible bythat p rt of the gripper with which it comes in contact.

Other objects and aims of the invention, more or less broad than thosestated. above, together with the advantages inherent, will be in partobvious and in part specifically referred to in the course of thefollowing description of the elements, combinations, arrangements ofparts, and applications of principles constituting the invention; andthe scope of protection contemplated will appear from the claims.

In the accompanying drawings, which are to be taken as part of thisspecification, and. in which I have shown merely a preferred form ofembodiment of invention, Figure 1 is a plan view showing my invention asap plied to a tympan and showing also its relation to a sheet which isbeing printed and to a gripper finger; Fig. 2 is a plan view of a blankfrom which a gage pin such as shown in Fig 4 may be formed up; Fig. 3shows a blank of the same over-all length, but which when formed up willproduce a gage pin of the height shown in Fig. 5; Fig. 4 is a sectionalview as taken on the line 4-4 of Fig. 2, when the subject-matter of Fig.2 has been formed up by bending it along the dotted lines appearing inFig. 2; Fig. 5 is a view similar to Fig. 41- of a gage pin made byforming up the blank shown in Fig. 3; Fig. 6 is a perspective view of agage pin made in accordance with my invention, showing a depressibletongue mounted on the arch portion of the gage head; Fig. '7 is a detailview of the spring tongue detached; Fig. 8 is a plan view of one of thegage pins carrying a'transversely extending spring tongue which adaptsit for use particularly as a side gage, with machine feeding; and Fig. 9is a detail of the spring tongue shown inFig. 8.

Referring to the, numerals on the drawings, 8 indicates a tympan and 9 asheet of stock which is to be printed. 10 indicates a gripper linger,which is provided with a long narrow slot or opening 11. The gage pincomprises a blank surh'as shown in Fi gs. I

2 and 3 generally oblong and having a forward portlon 12 with teeth leton its edge.

,This forward portion 12 of the gage pin blank is bent along the dottedlines 15, 16 and 17, to form a U-shaped part as shown in Figs. 4, 5 and6, the outer part of the U- shaped member, indicated at18, beingprovided with the teeth lt at its lower edge, and the inner part 19 ofthelLshaped member being parallel to the forward member or gage headproper 18, and the two parts 18 and 19 being connected by thecross-piece or connecting member 20, which is preferably fiat.rlppreciably back of the bending line 17 of the blank, as shown in Figs.2 and 3, the blank is cut out to form parallel presser arms 22-, whichare to rest on top of the tympan, and between these two presser arms 22a holding prong 2% with pointed end 25, this holding prong beingintended to be inserted beneath the tympan sheet,

so that the ty pan sheet is between the arms 22 and the prong 2 1. Itwill be observed that the side edges of the blank are parallel and thereare no extensions or notches or insets, except those which are necessaryto produce the teeth 14, the arms 22 and the prong 2 1. The lower edgeof the gage head proper 18 may be provided with as many teeth asdesired, and by increasing the number of teeth the length of them may bereduced, with obvious advantage. Furthermore, the holding prong and thepresser arms are fiat and substantiall g" rest above the plane of thetympan sheet, so that the end part of the device which projects abovethe tympan sheet in use to any great extent is the arched gage headportion comprising the two portions 18 and 19 and the connecting member20. Consequently the gripper finger 10 provided with the cut out 1]. may

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come down flat on the device. And the connecting member 20 is made toserve as a support for a spring tongue, comprising a flat finger 26,integral with and extending upwardly at an angle from a flat arm 27which passes beneath the arch member 20 and is held in position thereonby a bent portion 28 which overlies the arch member 20. At the junctionbetween the arm 27 and the bent portion 28 the material is given acurvature 29, so that the top member 28 tends to move toward the arm 27.The result of this is that when the spring tongue is in the position asshown in Fig. (5 it tends to keep that position, even though the finger26 is depressed by the gripper linger as indicated in Fig. 1. The archgage head thus accommodates the holding portion of the spring tongue,housing it and guiding it in its movement up and down. The holdingportion may be readily opened to release or attach it laterally to thehousing; and when slipped into place, the flap is held on by the freeend 26 which crosses the side edge of the member 18.

is indicated by Figs. 2 and 3, age pins having gage heads of differentheights may be made from blanks of substantially the same over-alllength, by properly locating the. bending lines 15, 16 and 17 and makingthe cut outs for the presser arms 22 and prong 2a to the rear of thebending line 17. Thus with a higher gage head the prong will be slightlyshorter than with a lower gage head. Otherwise there will be nostructural difficulties.

Assuming that the direction of feed of the sheet is according to thearrow at the top of 1 and that the feeding is done automatically bymachine, it is obvious that a side gage such as shown at the lower partof Fig. 1 should have its spring tongue 30 extending transversely of thegage pin, that is to say, in the same general direction as the tongue 26of the end gage which is also shown in ig. 1. This result isaccomplished by forming the spring tongue as most clearly indicated inFig. 9. so that when it is slipped into position on the arched housingof the the end 31, which is at the left in Fig. l, is elevated o as toguide the sheet to its desired position flat on the platen.

Inasmuch as many changes could be made in the above construction, andmany apparently widely different embodiments of my invention could bemade without departing from the scope thereof, it is intended that allmatter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanyingdrawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limitingsense.

It is also to be understood that the language used in the followingclaims is intended to cover all the generic and specific features of theinvention herein described and all statements of the scope of theinvention which, as a matter of language, might be said to falltherebetween.

I claim l. A. gage pin having a U-shaped forward portion, the outer armof the U provided with teeth along its lower edge, the inner arm of theU having a rearward extension at its lower edge with presser arms and aholding prong integral with said extension, and a spring tongue carriedby the con necting member of the U-shaped part.

2. device as set forth in claim 1, in which the spring tongue comprisesa clip engaging on both sides of the connecting member of the U-shapedpart and having a portion projecting forwardly of the outer member ofthe U-shaped part.

3. A gage pin having a U-shaped forward portion, the outer arm of the Uprovided with teeth along its lower edge, the inner arm of the U havinga rearward extension at its lower edge with presser arms and a holdingprong integral with said extension.

a. A device as set forth in claim 1 in which the spring tongue comprisesa clip engaging on both sides of the connecting member of the U-shapedpart and having a portion projecting transversely of the presser armsand holding prong.

5. A gage pin having a body portion and a head portion, and a memberhaving an attaching portion engaging the head and a tongue portion infront of the head.

6. A spring tongue for the purpose described having clamping portions toengage on opposite sides of a supporting member, a downwardly bentportion extending from one of the clamping members, a connecting memberintegral with the said downwardly bent portion and an upwardly extendingtongue portion integral with said connecting portion.

7 A gage pin having a body portion and a head portion, and a memberhaving an attaching portion engaging the head and a tongue portion infront of the head and disposed transversely of the body.

8. A gage pin comprising a vertical forward wall, a second wallconnected to the upper edge of the first wall and extending downwardlywith respect to its line of connection with the first wall, andrearwardly extending members projecting from the lower edge of thesecondwall and adapted to clamp a tympan sheet.

9. A gage pin having a head comprising a vertical forward wall, a secondwall connected to the upper edge of the first wall, and extendingdownwardly with respect to its line of connection with the first wall,and a tongue member having an attaching portion secured to the head andextending between the two walls thereof.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature.

EDWARD L. MEGILL.

